BERESFORD, Charles Clement
| Service Numbers: | Not yet discovered |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Unit: | Not yet discovered |
| Born: | Adelaide, SA, 8 February 1885 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | St. Peter's College |
| Occupation: | Bank Clerk |
| Memorials: | Hackney St Peter's College Fallen Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| Date unknown: | Involvement |
|---|
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Charles Clement Beresford was born in Adelaide on 8 February 1885 and like his brothers Arthur and William attended the Collegiate School of St Peter in Adelaide and later served in the Great War. After leaving school, he was employed as a bank clerk in Adelaide and subsequently joined his elder brother Mordaunt in Canada. While there he enlisted in the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve as an Officer and was in the ice-free port of Halifax Nova Scotia when an Ammunition ship exploded destroying many other ships in the harbour as well as the docks and part of the town. Charles it seems was able to crawl on his hands and knees to safety.
He died unmarried, shortly after the war ended, having not returned to Australia. One wonders if his death was a consequence of this huge explosion. [vii]
During the Great War Halifax, Nova Scotia was a Canadian Navy base as well as the home to a significant army garrison and on 6 December 1917 Halifax harbour was crowded with ships of all description from every corner of the globe.
At 8.45 a.m., when the Norwegian cargo ship Imo and the French munitions ship Mont Blanc collided the latter caught fire and exploded twenty minutes later. In the largest unnatural explosion in history to that time, nearly 2,000 people lost their lives and almost five times as many were injured.
There were hundreds of unidentifiable bodies recovered and obviously, a good many people were never accounted for. Over 10,000 buildings were damaged or totally obliterated and there must have been many hundreds of people survived the blast but died as a consequence of the explosion months, years or even decades later.
Courtesy of Robert Kearney